McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Magic use in contemporary fantasy
terioncalling:
--- Quote from: Abstruse on January 08, 2007, 02:53:10 AM ---I always pictured it like a video game with three energy bars. The first one refills immediately upon the spell being cast or when the spell is no longer being sustained. The next refills slowly until you sit down and catch your breath, refilling completely within 10 minutes to an hour or so. The last refills very slowly and doesn't refill at all while energy is being channeled.
--- End quote ---
I had to stop and stare at the screen at reading that because of how much sense it makes.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: terioncalling on January 09, 2007, 07:39:19 PM ---
--- Quote from: Abstruse on January 08, 2007, 02:53:10 AM ---I always pictured it like a video game with three energy bars. The first one refills immediately upon the spell being cast or when the spell is no longer being sustained. The next refills slowly until you sit down and catch your breath, refilling completely within 10 minutes to an hour or so. The last refills very slowly and doesn't refill at all while energy is being channeled.
--- End quote ---
I had to stop and stare at the screen at reading that because of how much sense it makes.
--- End quote ---
I don't know. I've never liked books where whenever anyone casts a spell you can almost hear the dice rolling, and that model feels unfortunately close to such.
WonderandAwe:
--- Quote from: neurovore on January 10, 2007, 05:04:49 PM ---
--- Quote from: terioncalling on January 09, 2007, 07:39:19 PM ---
--- Quote from: Abstruse on January 08, 2007, 02:53:10 AM ---I always pictured it like a video game with three energy bars. The first one refills immediately upon the spell being cast or when the spell is no longer being sustained. The next refills slowly until you sit down and catch your breath, refilling completely within 10 minutes to an hour or so. The last refills very slowly and doesn't refill at all while energy is being channeled.
--- End quote ---
I had to stop and stare at the screen at reading that because of how much sense it makes.
--- End quote ---
I don't know. I've never liked books where whenever anyone casts a spell you can almost hear the dice rolling, and that model feels unfortunately close to such.
--- End quote ---
Same. Game models were designed to make the "real world" idea of magic easier to convert to numbers and balance out with other forms of combat. Limitations that are used in games to balance out people's characters (mostly to prevent power gamers from abusing thier characters power) don't make sense half the time in the "real world."
I always found stories that take game models and try to convert them back into the "real world" model to be quite dry. I don't really want a blow by blow account of HOW and WHY the character won. Just give me a pretty description of the fight.
The best example I can come up with the Fade/Adrick fight at the end of CF. It wasn't all "Adrick back stepped after Fade parried his blow. Fade renewed his attack and Adrick barely dodged the next attack. " It was a general description of the tone of the fight. How Fade's attacks were very fluid next to Adrick. How Adrick was basically freaking out by the fact that Fade was there.
the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
--- Quote from: DaiDreamer5 on January 10, 2007, 05:35:10 PM ---The best example I can come up with the Fade/Adrick fight at the end of CF. It wasn't all "Adrick back stepped after Fade parried his blow. Fade renewed his attack and Adrick barely dodged the next attack. " It was a general description of the tone of the fight. How Fade's attacks were very fluid next to Adrick. How Adrick was basically freaking out by the fact that Fade was there.
--- End quote ---
Oh yes. And the other advantage to sticking with the general tone of the fight is that if you don't happen to actually know the technical details of swordplay well, you're less likely to do something that will cause someone who does to throw the book across the room. Mind you, that fits a lot better with the viewpoint of someone watching who also has no idea than from the viewpoint of one of the actual fighters,
Abstruse:
Like I said, that's just how I picture it in my head. The descriptions are much more fluid and the system works for visualization but is flexible enough to allow me to play fast and loose with it when writing. It's not meant to be something like this:
"...and Elle knew she only had fourteen levels of moderate power left, but she also knew that she had her full immediate energy left to cast the fireball." If I wanted to read (or write) that, I'd just write an RPG.
In my writing, it looks more like this: "...and Elle had started to breathe deeply. She'd exhausted most of her reserves of power, but her vision was still clear enough to visualize one last spell. Flames filled her mind as she brought them into existence. Sweat beaded from the effort and she knew this was the last of her energy..."
The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.
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